@mrmhead Said
OK - I read a bit more. It's 6 from UK plus another 6 to start. And then there was mention of an "eventual 20 teams"
The whole thing is dead in the water now. It's been killed by fan resistance and the opposition of people like Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher via Sky Sports.
OK... so it was going to work like this: There were the initial 12 clubs named on Sunday. 6 from England, 3 from Italy and 3 from Spain. It was expected that three more would be named this week (but that won't happen now). That would make up a core 15 "Founder Clubs" who would be ringfenced into the league, effectively as a franchise operation. It was intended that every season, five more clubs in Europe would be invited to join. The selection would be based on how they performed in their parent (national) league in the previous season.*
There would be a home and away round robin system, played in midweek during the regular season which would allow the clubs to play in their parent league at weekends. The ESL would replace participation in the UEFA Champions League which, at the moment is the pinnacle of the game in Europe.
The major problem arose over qualification. The 15 ringfenced clubs would have automatic qualification every season, reaping vast financial benefits that were expected to be way, way beyond what is currently available via the Champions League. Thus, they would become vastly richer and able to attract all the best players with huge wages. These clubs would then become totally dominant in their parent leagues, permanently rendering the other 14 Premier League clubs helpless to compete.
In 2016, Leicester City... a minor club from the East Midlands... won the Premier League against all the odds, following Blackburn Rovers who did the same in 1995. Both clubs were way outside the elite but they battled their way to the top prize and won the admiration of the entire English football community.
And this is what the objections are really all about. This European league, and the consequences of it on the Premier League would render it impossible for a Blackburn Rovers or Leicester City, or anybody else, to compete for the top honours ever again. They could have no aspiration.
If they ever produced a highly talented player, he could be immediately lured away by an ESL club who could pay wages no other club could hope to compete with.
This was all about money. The club owners cooked this up without any consultation with coaches, managers, players or fans. They saw the vast money making opportunities and went for it.
Now it lies in tatters.
Last night, Manchester City decided to drop out. Chelsea also said they intended to do likewise, but City gave formal written notice that they were withdrawing first. That triggered the other five English clubs to announce their decision to withdraw.
It's possible that the project could still go ahead, but it could hardly call itself "Super" without the participation of Premier League clubs. Bayern Munich of Germany and Paris St Germaine (France) had previously said they weren't interested. Without the elite clubs from England, Germany and France it would be a sham competition. So I think it will be either dropped or the money men will have to go away and have a serious re-think about how to promote it in another format.
They'll have a job on their hands. English fans have rejected the entire thing completely and utterly. I don't think any plan would be welcomed here, likewise Germany and France. Spain and Italy can go ahead if they want. Perhaps they can call it "The Latin League." But I don't think it would have the same global appeal.
This has been killed stone dead.
*The invitation five would be nothing more than making up the numbers. If they accepted the invitation they would know they would be relegated out of it at the end of the season because no matter how well they performed. They would have to make way for next season's invitation five. What's the point of competing in a league that you cannot possibly win, and are guaranteed to be relegated from regardless of performance..? It's a mockery of sporting competition.